Rotating 3d rings

[ianstark]

I'm in need of another kick start from any kind soul that has already succeeded where I am failing!

OK, the only way I can think of to describe what I'm trying to achieve is like the alien contraption in the movie Contact (I love that film and book) or like the old animations depicting nuclear power. A little like this http://www.btinternet.com/~j.doyle/SR/Emc2/fission_end-atom.gif but with wider rings or like this http://www.prairienet.org/~tatwell/movie9.jpg (tiny picture but if you know the movie you'll know what I mean!).

I need to have four plain coloured rings (like a thin version of a christmas daisy chain segment), intertwined to look like a skeletal ball, with each ring rotating independently. Wow, that's hard to describe!

Things like the rotation and timing I believe I can handle. Where I'm getting stuck is WAAAY earlier - how do I create the rings in 3d space (ok 2.5d) with AE7.

Do I need a 3rd party plug-in? Or could I create a ring in Cinema4D, import it into AE, duplicate it and position the copies in 3d space? Or is there something in AE that I'm not getting? What would your route be?

Having created the rings I need to then animate a number of 'video panels' that will project at right angles from the surface of the ring. But first things first, eh?

Many thanks in advance of any help you can throw at me.

Have a great weekend.

Ian . . .

[oneinfiniteloop]

Well, you have to ask your self two things...do you want the rings to be full 3D in AE, or do you just want 2d objects in 3d space?

If you import the rings, or create them in AE you will only have 2d objects in 3d space, which means at certaing parts of the rotation cycle the rings will look flat and have no depth.

Now, if you want full 3d rings which retain their depth while rotating, that would be a task for Cinema 4D. Personally, I would take this route. Create and animate in Cinema 4D, then when you're done and have a good animation, export with an alpha channel to AE. Then you can comp in your video projections, etc.

[surf]

I fully agree with oneinfiniteloop.

[Matt Grunau]

Well, you have to ask your self two things...do you want the rings to be full 3D in AE, or do you just want 2d objects in 3d space?

If you import the rings, or create them in AE you will only have 2d objects in 3d space, which means at certaing parts of the rotation cycle the rings will look flat and have no depth.

Now, if you want full 3d rings which retain their depth while rotating, that would be a task for Cinema 4D. Personally, I would take this route. Create and animate in Cinema 4D, then when you're done and have a good animation, export with an alpha channel to AE. Then you can comp in your video projections, etc.


What he said. 3D is the way to go.

[rightfrog]

If you want to keep the whole thing in AE, you could use the Zaxwerks filter...might make it easier to incorporate with other video in AE.

[ianstark]

Thanks to all for all the suggestions.

I've had a play in C4D and my results are far from satisfactory - I have no solid experience in C4D and the lady that used to work with it has left the company so I can't turn to anyone else in house. [sigh].

The accepted wisdom is clearly to go the 3d app route, and I think this is good advice, but your comment (oneinfiniteloop) about creating the rings in AE but losing depth at certain points in the rotation cycle, interests me. I'm not sure that I actually NEED depth in the rings. However, I am completely stumped as to how to go about building and animating the rings solely in AE, which would be my first choice.

I hope you won't think I'm being too pushy if I ask for some further help here.

As a last measure, I may decide that this part of the project is beyond me and look for a (paid) third party to create and animate the rotating rings and the 'video panels' that spring out of them during the animation. I would need this work to be done in AE or C4D or a combination of both and the project would need to a) allow me to add video footage to the moving panels, ideally in AE and b) be reusable in other projects (eg changing the colour of the rings, camera movement, video footage etc).

If anyone is interested please email me at ianpstark@ntlworld.com with a ballpark idea of what you'd expect in the way of payment. I'd be happy to email a few images from the design company to give you an idea of the requirements. You'll understand that I'm reluctant to post a link to them here. I can't promise that this will result in a commission but I am first and foremost a video shooter and NLE editor and, even though I'm rapidly growing my AE skills, I'm nervous about running before I can walk, especially on a client project!

I am filming all this week (for this project, in fact) so apologies if my replies are not immediate. I will be checking mail every day though.

Cheers.

Ian . . .